Normal bro's 4 day a week weight lifting experiment log.

[Normalbro]

I’ll be doing this log to document all of my workouts.

My goal right now is to lift weights 4 days a week, without EVER missing a workout. I’ll be doing this for 3 months.

For the first 3 months, I won’t worry about diet or take any supplements. My eating habits will remain as they are now; eating twice a day. I don’t eat this way for any particular reason, only because it aligns with my current schedule. But of course, this is not set in stone. As I learn more, I'll make adjustments.

I guess this is also an easier way for me to get introduced to a healthier lifestyle, since I’ve gotten out of shape. My job consists of sitting the entire time, so I really need to get some exercise. So for now this will get my feet wet.

This being a bodybuilding site, I know all of you are more advanced and can lift way more than I. But this is why I came here, so people can see my journey and maybe learn a thing or two from you guys.

Note: I’m already on day 9 as I write this. But it’s difficult keeping everything updated, so I’ll keep this up to date as best as I can. I've been doing it on Twitter but it seems there's no real people there, only people trying to sell me suppliments. And since I don't know much about suplements or have a lot of money, I won't bother with them at this point.

I will post a video of every single workout I do. Along with progress pics.

[Normalbro]

This is day 1. I'm already into this for 2 weeks or so, so I'll just post everything as I have time. But I have taken pics and videos, I'll post those as well.

looks like I can't post pics until I have 50 posts, So I'll have to post my pics later.



Pre-workout thoughts:

Felt great, a little nervous, almost like going on a first date. But the motivation was there.


After workout thoughts:

Today being the first day, I knew my workout wouldn’t be a good one. Even though I did not stick to the guidelines I set for this work out (resting times between sets), I still did the whole routine. I haven’t worked out in ages, so getting the first workout out of the way felt great.

I didn’t feel any particular kind of “pump” after the workout. This doesn’t surprise me as my workout was not really intense. The biggest issue I had during this workout was muscle fatigue. The plan was to keep resting periods between sets to fewer than 90 seconds. That did not work out for me, particularly during bench pressing . On the third set, I was barely able to do 3 repetitions. Next time, I’ll increase the rest periods to 3 minutes.

Today I learned that I need to focus more on proper form and forget about the amount of weight being lifted. This process will make me healthier and without proper form, I can get injured. After watching the videos I noticed that I was not going as low as should have during pull ups. I need to fix that.

As I get stronger and my form improves, I will also need to also work on my intensity.

Date: 9 February 2015
Weight: 179 Lbs
The work out plan:

Rest time between sets: 2 minutes



Barbell bench press:

First set: 12 reps, 95 Lbs.
Second set: 12 reps, 135 Lbs.
Third set: 3 reps, 140 Lbs. (Not on camera)
Fourth set: 6 reps, 140 Lbs. Took a 5 minute break and was able to do 6 reps.
Fifth set: 6 reps, 145 Lbs.
Sixth set: 6 reps, 150 Lbs.


Pull ups:

First set: 6
Second set: 7
Third set: 7
Fourth set: 7


Bent over barbell rows

First set: 12 reps, 135 Lbs.
Second set: 12 reps, 140 Lbs.
Third set: 11 reps, 140 Lbs.
Fourth set: 12 reps, 140 Lbs.

Workout video

[Normalbro]

Date: 10 February 2015
Weight: 181 Lbs.





Pre-workout thoughts:

I decided to work on shoulders and arms today, even though I felt sore all over my upper body. I was not sure if it would be a good idea to work out, but I was very motivated so I pushed on.

I also didn’t have anything for breakfast before working out, so we’ll see how that affects me.

Workout video:





After workout thoughts and lessons learned:

Going to a 3 minute rest period definitely helped. I felt more energetic and motivated. For some exercises I didn’t even need the entire 3 minute rest period.

One thing I did learn was to not work on my arms after doing chest and back the day before. As you can see in the video, I could had a lot of trouble doing dips and my chest was burning like crazy. I had to start getting ready for work so I cut the workout short.

I need to start waking up earlier.










Workout plan of the day:

Rest time between sets: 3 minutes

Barbell military press

First set: Bar only, 12 reps (warm up)
Second set: 65 lbs., 12 reps
Third set: 85 lbs., 12 reps
Fourth set: 95 lbs., 12 reps
Dumb bell Shrugs:

First set: 35 pound dumb bells, 20 reps
Second set: 50 pound dumb bells, 15 reps
Third set: 50 pound dumb bells, 12 reps
Fourth set: 50 pound dumb bells, 12 reps
Concentration curls

First set:25 pound dumb bells, 12 reps
Dips

First set:6 reps

[Normalbro]

Day 3

Date: 12 February 2015
Weight: 180

Pre-workout thoughts:

Yesterday I took it off as my rest day, since I plan on only working out 4 days a week. All I had to eat was a cup of coffee with milk in the morning and a big plate of white rice and left-over gumbo for dinner.

Today, I knew I was going to work on my lower body, but wasn’t sure on what else. After some soul searching (and the fact that I was running out of time), I decided to just do squats and deadlifts. I have read that deadlifts are pretty good for overall body strength, but they can hurt you bad if you use bad form. With this in mind, I jumped straight in.

Both of these exercises, squats and deadlifts will be first timers for me, but having read plenty about them last week, I put them in my list as candidates for my workout. Not to mention how simple they are.

Workout video:







After workout thoughts and lessons learned:

Doing the first set of squats with the bar, I felt good, although a little off balance. I imaged that if I didn’t keep balance, I would fall with heavier weight on the bar. After putting two plates of 25 lbs., I realized that the weight helped stabilize my body and keep me firm to the ground. The problem now was realizing that I was under this weight and I was solely in charge of it. There’s a lot of pain and burning when coming up from a squat, more than I anticipated. I will blame this on the fact that I have chicken legs and have never done squats before. After the squats, my legs felt like angel hair spaghetti noodles from Olive Garden

The deadlifts were a complete failure. Maybe I was doing them wrong or the squats simply fatigued my legs too much. When I tried to do the first set, I didn’t feel stable at all. For the sake of my safety, I stopped right then and there. I will do deadlifts, but I will have to incorporate them into another day.

As I go through this experiment, I’ll shuffle things around to be more efficient with my workouts. Maybe I’ll isolate my back workout for a single day and include deadlifts to that, but we’ll see.

Workout plan of the day:

Rest time between sets: 3 minutes

Squats

First set: Bar only, 12 reps (warm up)
Second set: 95 lbs., 8 reps
Third set: 105 lbs., 7 reps
Fourth set: , 5 reps
Deadlifts:

First set: Failure

[Normalbro]

Day 4 of Normal Bro’s Weight Lifting Experiment.

Date: 13 February 2015


Pre-workout thoughts:

Legs were very sore from yesterday’s workout, but my motivation level was high. My chest didn’t feel sore anymore, so I decided to try to hit the major body parts again before the weekend; chest, shoulders and back.

Workout video:







After workout thoughts and lessons learned:

Things were going well, that is until the second set of bench press with 135lbs on the bar. After a number of repetitions, I started noticing a sore feeling right above my right arm pit. Still, I decided to proceed with heavier weight and less repetitions to see if the pain would not be as noticeable. I put in an additional 20 lbs. on the bar (which is a big increment for me at this point) and aimed for 5 reps. As you can see in the video, I was able to do 5 reps, but I can tell my form was off. With this result, I tried the same amount of weight to see if I can do 5 reps again, but with better form for my last set. On this attempt, I felt better under the weight and was able to do 6 repetitions with better form (not sure how that happened).

I was again running out of time, so for the rest of my workout I did a couple of sets of pull ups and military barbell presses. I again noticed that my pull ups are not being done properly since I’m not going down all the way. I have to remind myself while I’m doing these.

Overall, a good workout. I am still listening to my body, and realizing that muscle recovery is not as fast as I imaged. I will still move exercises around to get more efficiency out of my workout time. I also need to stop hitting the snooze button and wake up earlier.


Workout plan of the day:

Rest time between sets: 3 minutes

Barbell bench press:

First set: 12 reps, 95 lbs.
Second set: 9 reps, 135 lbs.
Third set: 5 reps, 155 lbs.
Fourth set: 6 reps, 155 lbs.
Pull ups:

First set: 6 reps
Second set: 6 reps ( I got a phone call while my phone was recording so it cut the video short)
Barbell military press:

First set: 12 reps, 75 lbs.
Second set:7 reps, 95 lbs. ( Swapping little plates got annoying so I just put 25 pound plates to see how I would do, and I was able to knock out 6 reps)

[Normalbro]

Day 5 of Normal Bro’s Weight Lifting Experiment.

Date: 16 February 2015
Weight: 183



Pre-workout thoughts:

Last night I had a hard time falling asleep, not sure why since I felt tired before going to bed. After lying in bed for hours on my tablet, I remember putting it away around 3AM to attempt to go to sleep. Fortunately, today was one of my days off so the lack of sleep won’t affect my work day.

In addition to the lack of sleep last night, I’m developing a cough, along with the fact that my legs are still sore from the squats I did last week. Needless to say, I’m definitely lacking motivation to work out today.

I will push through it. Writing this down really makes me realize why I’m lacking motivation. Knowing the problem, I will still work out.

I am still trying to figure out when to workout which body part in order to be more efficient. So, my goal today is to see if doing chest and shoulders on the same day is a good idea.



Workout video:





After workout thoughts and lessons learned:

The first set of bench felt easier than before, even though I’ve only been lifting for a week. I’m pleasantly surprised.

Another thing to note: on my second set of bench press, with 135lbs on the bar, it also felt easier than before. I was able to lift 12 reps and could probably do more. However, on the 10th rep or so, I felt that same spot from last week (above my right arm pit) start hurting again. From now on I’ll stick to less repetitions and add more weight to compensate. Overall, I feel more comfortable under the weight when bench pressing.

For shoulders, I stuck with simple movements such as military press and shrugs. Felt good doing both, but decided to do more repetitions of shrugs with lower weight because I feel a better burn than with higher weight.

I won another battle for this one. My motivation was lacking a lot today, so finishing this workout was great.


Workout plan of the day:

Rest time between sets: 3 minutes

Barbell bench press:

First set: 12 reps, 95 lbs.
Second set: 12 reps, 135 lbs.
Third set: 7 reps, 155 lbs.
Fourth set: 6 reps, 160 lbs.
Barbell military press:

First set: 12 reps, 65 lbs.
Second set: 8 reps, 95 lbs.
Third set: 9 reps, 95 lbs.
Fourth set: 7 reps, 100 lbs.


Shrugs

First set: 20 reps, 35 Lbs. dumbbell
Second set: 20 reps, 35 Lbs. dumbbell
Third set: 20 reps, 35 Lbs. dumbbell
Fourth set: 20 reps, 35 Lbs. dumbbell